Henry III Fine Rolls: Blog

Henry III spent the whole of this week in the Tower of London. He was preparing for war. On and around 18 October he asked over a hundred of his supporters to join him in London by the end of the month with horses, arms and as many troops as they could raise. He was also summoning soldiers from abroad. The count of St Pol, he hoped, would come with 60 knights. Henry’s brother, Richard of Cornwall, wrote advising a careful check as to where these foreign forces could safely land, adding that he would soon be with the king to give advice on the subject. If the Cinque Ports gave difficulty, not to worry. He could arrange a landing elsewhere. Henry was also taking steps to strengthen his castellans and explain his case. He sent Philip Basset and others into the counties with the message that the king wished to give justice to everyone in the kingdom and preserve everyone’s rights. The rival sheriffs were not to be obeyed. Yet if Henry was preparing for war he hoped for peace. A party within the opposition hoped so too. On 20 October Henry gave safe conducts to the barons coming to Kingston between 29 October and 1 November with a view to making peace over the contentions which had arisen. The only condition was that they should come without arms.

The fine rolls reflect the king’s efforts to reward and strengthen his supporters. Thus Henry made Baldwin de Lisle, earl of Devon, one of those summoned to come with horses and arms, keeper of the manor of Swineston (in Calbourne) in the Isle of Wight. This was a manor of the bishop of Winchester which was in the king’s hands as the bishopric was vacant. Baldwin was to take a 100 marks a year from the revenues to make up the annual pension given him by the king, and answer for the remainder at the exchequer. If war broke out, the men of the manor were to ‘assist the earl in the defence of those parts and in keeping the king’s peace’.

One of Henry’s complaints at this time was that the sheriffs put in place by the opposition were preventing people seeking the king’s justice. That may well explain the small numbers we have seen coming to court in the last few weeks to purchase writs to initiate and further legal actions according to the common law. Of the counties about which Henry was concerned particularly this week, no writs were purchased by people from Surrey, Sussex, Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire although one or two brave souls did come from Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Suffolk and Norfolk.